In Ward's words, Wiki is "the simplest online database that could possibly work"

A Wiki is basically a shared, online, persistent whiteboard

Slide 2: Foswiki Wiki

Foswiki implements the basic Wiki idea of a shared whiteboard

Anyone can add content... or change what is written... or change the organisation of the content

Whatever you write is... nicely presented... remembered... and never forgotten

Write using state-of-the-art What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) text editing ... or you can use a simple topic markup language that is quick to learn and easy to remember ... or you can use full HTML for complex formatting tasks

Foswiki is also an "application platform" that lets you quickly build and use your own online applications.

Slide 23: Wiki Culture

Enough about mechanics; how is a wiki actually used ? Well, that's really up to you, but there are a number of tricks that the wiki community has developed for collaborative writing that work pretty well:

What can I edit?

Anything. But it's good etiquette to sign your contributions

If someone doesn't want you to edit a page, it's up to them to say so, clearly, on the page

But what if somebody doesn't like my edits?

In Foswiki, they can always recover the old revision and re-instantiate it if they really want to

Otherwise they should regard your changes as an opportunity for discussion

Pages in wiki are (usually) in one of three "modes"

DocumentMode

ThreadMode

StructuredMode

Foswiki doesn't automatically distinguish between these modes; they are purely semantic.

Slide 24: That's fine for the internet, but...

People often say that wiki culture isn't appropriate in a corporate setting. Ignore them! Sharing information helps any company work more efficiently. However, there may be genuine security concerns, so:

Viewing/editing topics can be restricted to any indvidual, or group of individuals

Foswiki can be integrated with corporate single-sign-on solutions

Slide 25: DocumentMode

A page in DocumentMode usually comprises a contribution which is written in the third person and left unsigned.

The piece of text is community property

It may have multiple and changing authors as it is updated to reflect the community consensus.

Slide 26: ThreadMode

Thread mode is a form of discussion where the community holds a conversation

The discussion usually starts out with a statement, at the top of the page, that is subsequently discussed

The page may be periodically "refactored" (edited) to remove some of the comments

As long as the comment is accurately reflected in what replaces it, nobody usually minds.

Remember to always maintain a complete list of contributors, though!

You may see a comment box on a page in ThreadMode that makes it easy to quickly add your inputs. Typing in a comment and adding it to a page this way is known as "blogging"

ThreadMode is rather like an e-mail thread

Except that new comments are usually added to the end

ThreadMode pages often get refactored into DocumentMode

Slide 27: StructuredMode

A page in StructuredMode follows some predefined structure for example

An agenda

A set of meeting minutes

A requirement description.

Pages in StructuredMode will usually have rules governing how they are edited.

Slide 28: Contributed features

Basic Foswiki is rich with features, but is enriched even further by optional extension modules that may (or may not!) be installed in your Foswiki. These are usually classified as skins (modules that change the look-and-feel), plugins (modules that enhance functionality), wiki applications (sets of topics that implement an application) or contribs (modules that customise foswiki at a deep level).

When Foswiki is first installed, it comes with a default set of extensions pre-installed; you can see the list by visiting the InstalledPlugins page.

Slide 29: Foswiki and TWiki

Anyone surfing the web may have come across another wiki called "TWiki" which
in many respects is similar to Foswiki. This is because Foswiki is a fork from
the TWiki project. The fork happened because most of the developers of
TWiki rejected a for-profit commercial takeover of the project by the founder,
and forked the project to start Foswiki.

Foswiki is free - totally free - and will always remain so.

Foswiki is governed by a non-profit foundation, which is funded by subscriptions.

Foswiki is under continuous development by a large team of volunteer developers.

The Foswiki development team acknowledges a huge debt of gratitude to the
founder of TWiki, and wishes him well in his commercial exploits.

Slide 30: Getting more information

Foswiki has been developed for over ten years, and there's
a lot of it. It can be daunting at first, so don't try to learn the whole
thing in one go. The best way to start is to use it, and when you need to do
something new, browse this web or look for examples online.